Ireland - The North

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Friday 21 March 2008

It was an unnecessarily early start getting into Dublin city centre because the tour organisers at Paddywagon Hostel were not running on time. This didn’t surprise us very much because when we tried to book the 3 day tour over the phone, the operator was quite confused and disorganised also. While we were waiting we chatted with other tourists and hoped that the Paddywagon Hostels in Northern Ireland weren’t as shabby in Dublin because we were supposed to be staying in them for the next couple of nights.

When our minivan finally arrived (photo) we met our tour guide Carolyn and our fellow travellers being 3 Austrian Au Pairs and 2 Aussies.

First stop heading north was the town of Drogheda. The cathedral there supposedly housed the head of Oliver Plunkett but unfortunately due to the Good Friday public holiday the cathedral was closed (photo). We would have thought the tour operator would know this. As an alternative, we stopped for morning tea and wandered up the main street of the town to the old city gate (photo) and then hopped back on the bus and continued north.

Next stop was Monasterboice (photo) which is a monastery dating from the 10th century (photo). The grounds contain 3 of Ireland’s largest and oldest High Crosses (photo). We also discovered that the paddocks beside the monastery contain fantastic Irish jumping dairy cows (photo). It was extremely windy and every time there was a large gust the cows would frolic around, hopping across the fields... very strange!

After some confusion and many wrong turns, Carolyn took us to Derry which was to be our main destination for the day. Her most entertaining geographical embarrassment was when she actually drove over the sign pointing towards Derry at a roundabout and that's why she couldn’t find the correct roundabout exit. Upon arrival we were sent off into the town to find lunch for ourselves. Michael found a burger and Barbara found curry fries with cheese (photo)... mmm...nutrition! After lunch and a brief wander through the town we met Carolyn back at the van but were told we had to wait for another group to have lunch who arrived late. We decided to fill our time with a visit to the Derry Town Museum housed in the Derry Tower (photo) with the two other Aussies, Anne & Bronwyn. The museum was quite interesting and told us lots of history about the town. After the museum the other guide still hadn’t returned to the Guild Hall (photo) so we amused ourselves in the cold modelling with the ‘paddywagon’ (photo).

When the guide, Stephen, turned up he announced that a film crew from the BBC would be filming the tour. Stephen led us off on our walk along the city walls (photo) but it was such a pain having the BBC crew along because they kept making us repeat everything. Accordingly we spent more time ‘looking like a tour group’ than we actually spent learning anything. The film crew were not discreet as they had promised and interfered so much that Barbara felt compelled to take a cheeky shot of them near at the fort (photo). Interestingly we did see the border fence which still stands between the Catholic and Protestant sections of the city (photo) on top of which sits numerous sculptures as an attempt to ‘beautify’ it. Good luck beautifying a symbol of war!

From the top of the old city walls we looked out over ‘Free Derry’ (photos). We headed down the hill and into the bog (photo). We wandered around viewing the political murals (photos) including those in memorial of Bloody Sunday. We noticed that even the lamp posts were painted with the Republican flag (photo). The last mural was one for peace (photo) - there is some hope!

At this point, Stephen the not-so-responsible tour guide had left us behind without so much as an announcement of his departure so we dashed back in the direction of the Guild Hall and eventually found the group.

By this time it was getting late but Carolyn advised us that the Paddywagon hostel in Derry was full so we would be staying in another town ‘nearby’ overnight. She told us the accommodation was only half an hour away but it actually took her three hours to dive to Donegal because she got lost so many times.

When we finally arrived in Donegal we were taken to a nice hotel in the centre of town and asked to sit and wait while Carolyn arranged our rooms. It turned out she had messed up and taken us to the fancy hotel where the guides were staying, not to the Diamond Lodgings where we were staying across the street. The lodgings were still cleaner and much more comfortable than the shabby Paddywagon hostel we had seen in Dublin - and we fluked a double room - so we were quite satisfied with the stuff-up.

With no recommendations from Carolyn, we walked in the pouring rain to Donegal Chipper and enjoyed some delicious fresh fish and chips for dinner.

Saturday 22 March 2008

Surprisingly, breakfast was served as promised and then we walked around the town of Donegal (photo) and Donegal Castle (photo). Unfortunately this was stopped short by hail! (photo).

While driving up to the coast later that morning Carolyn asked us if there was anything else we were interested in seeing since we had left earlier than the other group. Michael suggested the Bushmills Distillery. Carolyn showed it to us alright, she pointed out a sign to it as she drove past it on the highway (photo).

Around noon we finally arrived at the Giant’s Causeway which was a really spectacular sight (photos). Unfortunately our ‘all-inclusive tour’ included entry but no tour so we wandered by ourselves with the pamphlet as our guide. We walked down the cliff paths to the causeway itself. We walked around the cliffs to where the path was closed due to rockslides and then headed back up the mountain.

The next stop was the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge which leads from the mainland to a small island. The ‘death-defying crossing’ not only was not included in our ‘all inclusive tour’ but was also very underwhelming (photos). The walk from the ticket office to the bridge itself was over a kilometre and then we waited in line to cross the tiny bridge after being delayed by people unsuccessfully trying to overcome their fear of heights. Then we quickly looked at the views from the top of the island and raced back down to get in line to cross back. The bridge wasn’t very exciting or ‘death-defying’ at all. It was quite sturdy and not very high above the calm waters below. Feeling very underwhelmed we returned to the Paddywagon and continued on our way.

Our lunch stop was at Ballycastle, meaning ‘town of the castle’ - but there wasn’t a castle! We grabbed some sandwiches and walked around town, watch some boys playing hurling, and strolled along the beach (photo).

After a few more hours of Carolyn’s misdirected driving we finally arrived in Belfast. We drove loops around the city while she found a place to park the van where she was sufficiently comfortable that it wouldn’t get blown up - something that apparently has happened in the past. Explaining to us once again that the Paddywagon hostel in Belfast was full just like the one in Derry, we were taken to the Linen House Hostel. There we were dumped for the night! Despite her concerns about safety in the city, we weren’t given ANY safety advice even when we asked for it and the hostel staff weren’t helpful either. We were put in rooms of 22 with no locks on the doors and no lockers for our stuff. The bathroom in our dorm was broken and there was no hot water in the entire building at all. Nice! We chained up our bags and the group set out together to find dinner - without a guide of course.

After a few failed attempts we managed to find somewhere serving food. From the fancy exterior of the Cloth Ear beside the Merchant Hotel and the customers turning up in limousines, we usually wouldn’t consider eating there. But when we looked at the menu, the prices invited us inside. The decor was very swish and the food was delicious. Barbara especially enjoyed her fish pie and Michael sampled the local ale (photos).

We later taught Bronwyn how to drink Guinness at a nearby pub where we were entertained by live music (photos). When ordering the drinks Michael was advised that we were drinking the wrong kind of drinks for the city we were in!

Sunday 23 March 2008

It was Easter Sunday but Barbara forgot Michael’s special Soccerball Easter Eggs in Dublin so we scoffed some Cadbury Cream Eggs later that day provided by a very guilty-feeling forgetful Michael.

With no planned activities in the morning and everything closed due to it being Sunday we headed out after our stingy breakfast to wander around the city. The most interesting things we saw were the Belfast Wheel (photo), which is pretty useless because its not much taller than the buildings around it, and a very crooked clock tower (photo).

Finally it was time for our Black Cab Tour of Belfast (photo). Not only was the cab not black, but it wasn’t even included in our tour. Our only organised activity for the main destination on our trip was ‘optional’ - we only found out this half way through the tour when the driver asked for payment! The driver, Mr Harper, and his colleagues were very polite and helpful regarding working out our guide’s misstatements but the fact remained that we had to pay for the tour and try to get a refund from Paddywagon later.

The tour itself was great. The political history tour took us around the different districts in Belfast, told us about the stories behind the murals around Shankhill Parade (photos) and took us to the headquarters of Sinn Fein (photo) and the Peace Wall (photos). Barbara and Bronwyn added their own message to it. Nearby the Sinn Fein headquarters a crowd began gathering to commemorate the 1916 Easter Uprising (photos). When the riot police and helicopters arrived, we departed and went to look at some more political murals (photo).

After a brief break for lunch, our cab driver collected us again for a second tour which he promised to us to compensate for the fiasco earlier over the money. It was very kind of him to offer it and the tour was very interesting. This tour was a historical tour of the city. Mr Harper showed us where the Titanic was built (photo), the city time capsule shaped as a fish, and where C.S. Lewis was born. He returned us to our hostel in plenty of time for our bus back to Dublin.

Due to our complaints, on the way back our new Paddywagon driver took us back via Drogheda to view Oliver Plunkett’s preserved head as the cathedral was now open. The cathedral also housed his pelvis and various other parts of his body (photos).

Back in Dublin we complained to the staff at the Paddywagon hostel but they were not interested in an apology let alone any reparations.

Exhausted, we headed back to Anne-Marie’s to spend our last evening in Dublin with her and Mark. We were very grateful for their hospitality and enjoyed our stay with them very much.

Monday 24 March 2008

We woke at an unsightly 3:30am for a 4am taxi to the airport. Anne-Marie even woke to see us off and made sure our taxi turned up! We made it to the airport in plenty of time for our sleepy 6:30am flight to Manchester (photo).

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Photos

The Paddywagon
- no sirens and flashing lights like the ones back home!